The front of the winning medals for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The concept of the medals was inspired by ancient China's ‘jade bi’ (bi is a flat jade disc with a circular hole in the centre), which features an engraved dragon design. The medals symbolize respect and virtue in the Chinese tradition. The front side of the medals follows the standard design set by the International Olympic Committee, while the back is inlaid with jade bi, and includes a metal centrepiece engraved with the Beijing Olympic emblem. The medals also incorporates subtle detailing, as highlighted by the medal hooks, the design of which was derived from China's traditional ‘jade huang’ (huang is a semi-circular jade ornament), and which features a double dragon design and a ‘Pu’ pattern (Pu pattern is a traditioanl Chinese grid pattern).BOCOG
/ Getty Images files

The back of the winning medals for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The concept of the medals was inspired by ancient China's ‘jade bi’ (bi is a flat jade disc with a circular hole in the centre), which features an engraved dragon design. The medals symbolize respect and virtue in the Chinese tradition. The front side of the medals follows the standard design set by the International Olympic Committee, while the back is inlaid with jade bi, and includes a metal centrepiece engraved with the Beijing Olympic emblem. The medals also incorporates subtle detailing, as highlighted by the medal hooks, the design of which was derived from China's traditional ‘jade huang’ (huang is a semi-circular jade ornament), and which features a double dragon design and a ‘Pu’ pattern (Pu pattern is a traditioanl Chinese grid pattern).BOCOG
/ Getty Images files

Those are the hands of Cindy Klassen, Canada’s long-track speed skating sweetheart of the 2006 Winter Olympics, with her medal haul from the Turin Games. The Winnipeg native won five medals in Turin: gold in the 1,500 metres, silver in the1,000 metres, silver in the team pursuit, bronze in the 5,000 metres and bronze in the 3,000 metres.Peter J. Thompson
/ CNS files

A set of silver, gold and bronze medals (left to right) for the Athens Olympics in 2004. Each medal weighed 150 grams with a diameter of six centimetres.Milos Bicanski
/ Getty images files

Maybe it took her two years after the fact to get it, but there’s no prying cross-country skier Beckie Scott’s hands off her gold medal for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The two Russian skiers who finished ahead of Canada’s Scott were later stripped of their medals after testing positive for doping.Ian Lindsay
/ Vancouver Sun files

The silver, gold and bronze medals (left to right) from the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Sydney organizers were scrambling having to explain to the local Greek community why an image of the Colosseum in Rome rather than the Parthenon in Athens appeared on the medals. The Sydney Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games said the design was a generic Colosseum and not the famous Roman one.Reuters files
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The front of the gold medal for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. The image depicts Victory holding a wreath over her head and carrying a frock of palm leaves on her arm with depictions of ancient Greece to complete the design.Reuters files
/ .

One side of the gold medal from the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.CNS files
/ .

The gold medal from the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.Beijing 2008
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B.C. high jumper Greg Joy holds the silver medal he won for Canada at the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics — the only home medal Canada would win at those Games.Mike Carroccetto
/ Vancouver Sun files

B.C. swimmers Ralph Hutton (left, silver medal in the 400-metre freestyle) and Elaine Tanner (silver medal in 100-metre and 200-metre backstrokes as well as 400-metre freestyle relay) show off their Mexico medals upon return to Vancouver from the 1968 Summer Games.Ralph Bower
/ Vancouver Sun files

Gallery: Olympic medals through the years

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